A remarkable church by Giles Gilbert Scott, designed in 1929 but not completed until 1963. The architectural forms and materials used are traditional but used in an original way, with a low nave and a dramatically tall chancel with an even taller square tower. The general standard of finish is extremely high.

The first Catholic church in Broadstairs was a corrugated iron church built in 1888 by Dominicans and enlarged in about 1909. The designs for the present church were prepared by Giles Gilbert Scott in 1929. The sanctuary, sacristies and part of the nave were completed in 1931; the church was finished to the original design in 1963, after Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s death in 1959. His designs for a presbytery were not carried out.

Description

See list description below.  This gives an incorrect date for the church. The knapped flint walls have dressings of Clipsham stone. The roof is of oak. The stone high altar doubtless dates from the 1960s.

List Description 

II

1950-1, by Sir Giles Scott. Completed 1961. Flint with stone dressings; pantiled roof. All faces of the N tower with 2 narrow lancets and chequered brick tympanum set within a tall blank arch. Broad 7-bay domestic looking nave with 4-light windows  and  open  trussed  roof.  2nd  bay  from  that  opens  out,  on  the  N,  to  a transeptal Sacred Heart altar and, on the S, to a similar transeptal Lady Chapel, each with a 2-light window. The westernmost bays are shallow transept-like ‘chapels’ containing, on the N, the confessional and, on the S, the baptistry. To the W, beyond a broad round unchamfered arch, the narthex with gallery above. Immensely high apsidal chancel, top lit from E and W. Lowish broad chancel arch. Altar rails and pulpit splendidly carved in C17 style. Pews of simple design.

Heritage Details